XXXvi INTRODUCTION. 



and by Smith Sound the ' Alert ' and ' Discovery ' were 

 ordered to make their way. They sailed under the 

 brightest auspices, and with the nation's earnest 

 wishes and sanguine hopes for their success. 



It is not my place to anticipate the narrative of 



that memorable expedition. All went well until the 



day when Captain Nares placed his ship on the open 



shore of the Polar Sea in the latitude of 82° 27', when 



the picture darkened, and to his experienced eye at 



least, it must have been apparent that so far as the 



first great object of the Expedition was concerned, all 



hope of success was at an end. From the highest 



eminence attainable no land was visible to the north. 



Nothing met the eye but a dreary waste of frozen 



ocean, the ruggedness of which defied all human 



efforts to penetrate it by ship or sledge. Where the 



land trended east and west, there alone with any hope 



lay the path of the explorers with the return of the 



sun in the coming spring. 



Much stress has naturally been laid on the superior 

 equipment of this Expedition, and on the great advan- 

 tages it possessed over previous ones in being provided 

 with full steam-power ; but when we come to analyse 

 these advantages they are more apparent than real- 

 Doubtless no ships could have been more efficiently 

 equipped or better provisioned, yet in this respect 

 there could scarcely have been any appreciable 

 difference between them and the numerous expeditions 

 which had been employed previously in the search for 

 Eranklin. In all their arrangements the Government 

 were actuated by the one principle — efficiency and 

 comfort — regardless of expense. Yet we find the 

 travelling parties of the present Expedition attacked by 

 malignant scurvy, which almost prostrated them after 



